The lightweight e-mountain bike genre has been gaining traction rapidly in the past six months. It's a category that Specialized pioneered back in 2020 with the Levo SL and their SL1.1 motor. However, while the SL whet the appetite of many and teased at the possibility of a sub 19kg motorised bike that could do it all, the category never really took off. That was until this year, when firstly Fazua launched their Ride 60 platform (60nm motor and 430wh battery) which was quickly adopted by Pivot and Transition, and then Trek launched their new Fuel EXe with a brand-new motor and battery system from TQ.
Electric test bikes have been notoriously hard to get hold of the past couple of years, so we were absolutely fizzing when Trek got in touch to say they were shipping us a new EXe to review. The concept of a lighter weight, better handling e-bike had enthralled us since we first tested the Levo SL, and while the SL was a great bike, ultimately the motor's lack of power (35nm) left it trapped in limbo between analogue and electric. Trek transcended this by teaming up with German tech company TQ to develop a totally new system which, after four years in the making, launched on the Fuel EXe with some impressive numbers—a 50nm
